Prime Minister's Office
English rendering of Prime Minister’s Address at Rashtriya Jan Jagriti Dharm Sammelan
The Reverend Shri ShailJagadguruMahaswamiJi, Shri IshwarPanditaradhyaShivachar Swami Ji, Shri Gauri Shankar Shivachar Swami Ji, Shri RenukaShivachar Swami Ji, Shri SugureshwaraShivachar Swami Ji, Shri Doctor RajshekharShivachar Swami Ji, the Reverend Shri Shiv Kumar Swami Ji, Shri Varalinga Swami Ji, saints from all over the country who are present here in Shrishailam, devotees, ladies and gentleman, and my colleague and the most popular leader in Karnataka Shri B. S. YeddyuruppaJi,
First of all my best wishes to all of you for the Ugadi festival. It would have been my good fortunehad I been able to visit Shrishailam, one of the most holy places in the country, in person to receive the blessings of Shri ShailJagad Guru MahaswamiJi and all of you sages and saints. However, due to busy schedule it could not happen. That is why I’m connecting with you people through technology and I offer my deepest regards to you people from here only.
Talking about the significance of Shrishailam, MaharshiVed Vyas had said that the people who visit the shrine get salvation from all kinds of attachments. ShrishailamSamamKshetram Na Bhoota Na Bhavishyati, this sentence aptly describes the superiority of this place.
Not only Mallikarjun Ling, one of the twelve Jyotirlings of India, is located in this region, butBhramrambaShaktipeeth and one of the founding masters of Veer ShaivDharm Shri Jagadguru Surya SinghasanPanditaradhyaGurupeethare also located here. So in this manner, this Shrishailam region is the confluence of the trinity of the Jyotirling, Shaktipeeth and the seat of Jagadguru.
Lord Basveshwara made this place his last resting place in the feet of Lord Shiva. Well known AllamPrabhudev and Akkamahadevi also got united with the Lord in this region only. The place of worship of Shiva devotee Siddha Rameshwar of Solar is also Shri Shailam. HemreddyAllamma became famous because of her devotion to the lord Mallikarjun. This is such a divine place of India which gives its blessing and energy to the entire country.
MahaswamiJi, in this holy place of confluence, an important programme for creating national awareness will be organised here every year on the occasion Ugadi. Thousands of people from across the country, specially from Karnataka will reach there to witness this event by walking hundreds of kilometres on foot. I humbly bow down to every devotee participating in this great Yajna of national awareness and faith.
Ugadi means beginning of a millennium. Ugadi is a festival of beginning of human life, it’s a festival of beginning of the creation. This is a festival of new hopes and aspirations. It’s a festival of nature; it’s a festival of environment. It’s a festival of beginning of a new life.
Tomorrow, people in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and several other states of the country will start the construction of new houses, will purchase new vehicles, new tractors, will start a business or will start some new work in their shops.
I convey my best wishes to everyone celebrating this festival. I wish that they should get plenty of blessings and rewards for their charity through the festival beginning tomorrow.
BevooBela Prasad is a fine example of this thing that how our traditions make us familiar with the principles of life. I’m hopeful that tomorrow all of you will get the taste of BevooBela or UgadiPachadhi. As that Prasadam is little sour, little sweet, life is also like that. Victory and defeat, happiness and misery, these ups and downs of life, how easily these fundamental principles have been made part of our value system, this thing can never be understood by those people who are not familiar with the history of the country.
All of you saints are very well familiar that how many efforts were made to damage our glorious history during the prolonged period of slavery. However, our traditions had that strength that they withstood that assault. So what was that strength in our country, eventually it was who that had held the country together during that period?
It was the power of sages and saints like you which protected the spiritual and cultural pride of the country at that time.
After the independence, there was some hope that the new government of the country would try to repair whatever little damage was caused to that pride. However, it has been unfortunate the leaders of that period associated the identity of the country with the snake charmers, magic and stunts. Not only this, an effort was made to prevent the future generations from knowing the important things of our glorious past.
This country is indebted to accomplished saints like you that those who tried to manipulate the history did not succeed in their efforts. On the one hand you people protected the country spiritually and culturally and on the other you also carried out the work of strengthening the social systems.
In a way, tomorrow’s event is that occasion of spirituality and knowledge in which whosoever takes a dip will achieve ultimate salvation and success. In a way, these programs and the ancient traditions of Kumbha can be described as of the same kind. During the Kumbha fairs too an effort is made to encompass our massive country at one place. Saints and sages, the wise masters gather and discuss the happiness and misery of the society. There is another unique feature of Kumbha fair. Every 12th year the saints and sages gather on the occasion of Kumbha and then it is decided that now what will be the direction of the society and country for the future. And whatever was decided during that time, in a way, itbecame like the resolutions made by the society.
It’s a matter of pride for all of us that these kind of great traditions which guide the society, which rid the society of its internal vice, have still been working even today. People will come from far flung areas to attend the RashtriyaJan Jagriti Conference organised in Shrishailam, they will meet each other and understand each other. And they will be united as per the spirit of oneness.
Lord Basweshwar had said ‘KarmannevehKarmaniEiziVisheshatShatgum’, it means that living a short life to achieve a defined objective is much better than living for 100 years without having an objective. This thing: to lead a life by having a purpose of life, to understand how to live life by setting an objective has become even more important in modern times.
You people are very well aware that how our government has adopted these words of Lord Basweshwar in our way of working. It has been our effort to formulate every scheme with a well laid out objective and should be implemented in stipulated time.
Today, the impact of this work culture is that more than 31 crore Jan Dhan bank accounts have been opened for poor people in just four years.
Our government has provided the insurance shield to 18 crore poor people at a premium of only one rupee per month and 90 paise per day.
Our government has provided free gas connections to more than three and a half crores women under the Ujjawala scheme in the record time.
More than 1.25 crore accounts of daughters have been opened under the SukanyaSammriddhiYojana. More than 3 crore kids and more than 80 lakh pregnant women have been vaccinated under the mission Indradhanush.
More than one crore houses have been constructed in the last three years under the Pradhan MantriAvasYojana.
The government has sanctioned more than 11 crore loans without bank guarantee under the Mudra scheme. More than five lakh crore rupees have been disbursed to youth under this scheme.
Today, the speed of constructing roads, the speed of laying the railway tracks and of electrification of tracks or the speed of adding the power capacity have become two-three times faster in comparison with the speed earlier and the reason behind this is the hard work done day-and-night to achieve a set goal.
Recently our government has announced one more scheme. And this scheme will alleviate a very big tension of the life of around 45 to 50 crore people of the country. This scheme is called Ayushman Bharat. The government will provide an insurance cover of up to Rs. five lakh in a year for the treatment of serious diseases to every poor family under the scheme.
Our government has been working towards making the life of poor people of the country, the life of the lower middle class people of the country easier by following the mantra of SabkaSath, SabkaVikas.
Our government has understood the power of people’s movement and given importance to it by learning from the old traditions. And it’s the impact of this thing that today the coverage of sanitation in the country has gone up to 80% under the Clean India Mission. It was around 40% before 2014. It means we have doubled the coverage.
Similarly be it the work of cleaning the rivers or be it Digital India Mission or be it the effort of augmenting the solar power capacity in the country, all these things have been taken forward as people’s movements. Your contribution will work as an inspiration in further strengthening of these people’s movements.
Recently, our government has started a national nutrition programme to tackle the challenge of malnutrition. In this programme, the work has been done as per a new approach.
Providing the nutritious food to women and kids alone does not mean providing nutrition to them.
Our government has been looking at this challenge in a holistic manner. If just nutritious food is provided but if there is an unclean environment around the mother and the kid, if they are not getting vaccination in time, if the proper care has not been given to the mother during the pregnancy and if the child does not get proper time of mother during the initial months then the bad effect of all these things can be seen in the form of malnutrition.
It means there are several conditions that are responsible for malnutrition. And it is also important that these conditions keep changing as per the region. If child marriage is the reason at one place then illiteracy is the reason at some other place. Shortage of food grain might be the reason at some place and at some other place it could belack of vaccination.
Therefore I urge you people that those who participate in the people’s awareness movement atShrishailam should also be given information about this scheme by you people. What are the local conditions there, this issue should be deliberated and the administration should be informed about that. Nutrition is not the subject related only to women, full participation of men is essential for tackling the malnutrition.
Today, the country is passing through a very important phase. The people of the country want to see the country free from its internal vices at the earliest. Your contribution is very important for not only making the people aware and putting an end to evils like casteism but also for putting an end to all the evils like black money and corruption that have been damaging the country. It’s also very important to make people aware about the efforts to divide the society.
The central government has been making every possible effort for the nation building but the blessings of all of you will further boost our energy.
I conclude my speech by once again bowing down to Shri ShailJagadguruMahaswamiJi and all other saints and sages present there.
I express my gratitude to all of you.